N.C. House Unanimously Passes Anti-Tolling Legislation

The North Carolina House of Representatives last week unanimously passed House Bill 267 to limit the state Department of Transportation's ability to impose tolls on existing interstates, including Interstate-95. The vote came just days after the state's Department of Transportation issued the results of its long-awaited North Carolina I-95 Economic Assessment Study.

The House vote marks a significant steps in the "No Tolls I-95 Coalition's" efforts to prevent the North Carolina DOT from tolling I-95 under the federal tolling pilot program. The legislation would not allow tolling of the existing lanes, but would allow for the construction of tolled "express lanes."

Meanwhile, NC-DOT has been presenting the results of its economic study in a series of listening sessions. The study evaluated several scenarios for generating infrastructure funds, including mitigated tolling, which would implement tolls, but offer a 50 percent reduction to local residents and businesses.

"No Tolls I-95 Coalition" Chairman and Kenly 95 Petro general manager Ernie Brame, along with dozens of municipalities, chambers of commerce and tourism boards, continue to criticize the tolling plan. In the Fayetteville Observer Brame said, "This is not right for I-95. Why should I-95 residents get charged for what other residents are getting for their gas tax? The DOT has ignored this road in favor of other projects," Brame said, "and now they get to I-95 and say they have no money."

This article originally ran inNATSO News Weekly(NNW), NATSO's member only weekly electronic newsletter. NNW is packed with the latest updates on government and business issues affecting the truckstop and travel plaza industry.